ottawa, canada | Edward Bronfman, the publicity-shy businessman who died this week at 77, was not only one of Canada’s most successful moguls but also one of the country’s leading philanthropists.
Edward Bronfman’s father, Allan, was the brother of Samuel Bronfman, the founder of the Seagram’s liquor company, which over the decades grew into one of the world’s largest distilling firms.
In the 1960s, however, Edward Bronfman and his brother Peter were forced out of Seagram’s by their uncle, Samuel, and their cousins, Charles and Edgar, to whom they sold their shares of the company after a nasty public feud.
Subsequently, the brothers built up their own business empire through the holding company Edper — a combination of their names, Edward and Peter — which at its peak was worth an estimated $100 billion. In 1987, Edper indirectly controlled Canada’s largest forestry company and largest trust company, and in 1992 accounted for 10 percent of the Toronto Stock Exchange’s value.
Clearly not fulfilled with the enormous success of his business ventures, in the late 1980s Bronfman began turning his attention to philanthropy. He took an active role in many national organizations and was a generous benefactor to several educational, cultural and health-care institutions in Montreal and Toronto.